It's the end of the world as you know it – brought to you by a Gnome Mage with big balls of fire

The death of the death of WoW and WoW blogging rumours

My death has been greatly exaggerated (although admittedly some mornings I feel like death warmed up)

The death of Armaggedons Coming! has been greatly exaggerated (hibernating would be a better description)

The death of WoW has been greatly exaggerated (even if it is bleeding, it still has a HoT or two ticking)

The death of WoW blogging has been greatly exaggerated (Even if the community has lost a few writing fingers)

The death of Elizabeth Taylor has been reasonably well reported, although there are rumors of her returning a Forsaken Warlock which may be exaggerated.

But of course I’m not here to talk about million-times married movie actresses that haven’t contributed anything to the world for the last 40 years beyond cheap laughs at their insane life choices.

I’m alive, I’m alive!

Starting with me, I’m here, I’m constantly drafting posts if only in my mind, but my ability to take them from silly idea to silly published post has been severely limited by a lot of things, not least RL dramas and soon the arrival of my (ex)mother-in-law – which isn’t a drama, but will most likely effect my ability to post.

Let’s face it, it’s a lot more fun (and makes a lot more sense) to follow a web comic from post 1 to the end, than to only read the latest few. I’m 2/3 of the way through that, so soon you will have my full and undivided atten…

Squirrel!

WoW’s Corpse

As for the death of WoW, I remember speculating ages ago (probably on another occasion when the death of wow was imminent), about whether they would ever turn WoW into a single player game when they shut down all the servers (OMG, I had a quick scan when I hunted for the link… I was at the time speculating whether people would be able to solo Onyxia on these single player versions… crystal ball must have been broken that day).

I doubt they will even shutdown all the servers when their nextgen MMO comes out, while there is a buck to be made, I’m guessing the servers will still be powered.

Is Rift the WoW killer?

I don’t know, maybe, probably not.

Is WoW dying?

If it is, it will probably be a long slow death with lots of heals thrown at it and 99% of people wont even know it was injured.

I wonder if it will die in my game playing life time, I really don’t know, but I really don’t care.

The last rites have now been administered so many times that I now skip the funeral and just attend the wake for the free booze and snacks.

As for the new folk, well with the right perspective WoW can be played as a game of joy and wonderment, not guides, theorycrafting and min/maxing. You can pick up the game, or a new class, or a new race and do something completely outrageous, something you haven’t done since you installed the game for the very 1st time… play blind and just enjoy it for the fun. Something that Larisa’s final blogger discovery, Michael who is admittedly lazier than the next man, wrote about today. Oh and it doesn’t even have to be WoW…

Realistically Blizzard could lose all, what is it, 12 million existing jaded players, yet not drop in subscription numbers for longer than an hour… apparently it’s a big world and contrary to my frequent insistence, doesn’t revolve around me (although I am yet to see the proof of this).

The Bloggers are leaving and with that the game will close it’s logon servers.

Pffft

Sorry still cracking myself up.

Has any blog, or even the WoW Blogosphere got the attention of 10% of the WoW community? Or 5%, or hell, maybe even 1%?

There is a reason new bloggers get told to write for themselves and if it pleases their audience then that’s an added bonus.

It’s because we are full of ourselves if we ever think we make a difference.

The blogging world was going to end when Big Red Kitty left the building, the trees were all going to die when Phaelia quit writing, the end was nigh when Euripedes wrote his last Mage post. The world really did end when Megan and Jong stopped blogging, in one big freaking explosion… but luckily they returned, rezzed us and occasionally we get a faint whiff of their unwashed undies.

There is one blogger I know who wrote 456 posts…

1 “Hello World!” post,

227 “goodbye” posts,

227 “I’m back” posts and

1 “I am going to strangle that freaking Gnome Mage when I get to Melbourne” post

over a period of 2.5-3 years. She was a master (or was is mistress of the dark arts) at the farewell post. I miss Saresa and maybe I have egged her into one last “Do the world a favor and strangle a Gnome today” post, but I doubt it… she knows the WoW blogging community continues without (despite… in spite of) her. She keeps in frequent contact with the community (You think I would go and count her posts one by one until I got to 456… try 5).

The thing is, the blogging community is made up of people, who make decisions (hopefully) first and foremost about themselves and sometimes that means moving on… sometimes they move on and produce some of their best work. As much as it may piss off BRK fanboys and fangirls, I personally believe that Daniel is a better Blogger than BRK, Euripedes the fanfiction writer is a better writer than Euripides the Mage blogger and hell, they both love bacon so they definitely have my vote.

I wonder in fact, if although BRK and Phaelia among many have been honored in game, I wonder do 99.99% of the players have any idea at all who they are, or more specifically were? The next question is do these bloggers really care?

Don’t get me wrong, I love this place, this WoW community and I have the utmost respect for those that came before me and have coexisted with me and I will have the same respect for the bloggers that will come after me. However I am not prepared to let the decisions of these individuals be a sign from the heavens that WoW or WoW blogging is dead.

At the worst it is maybe shrinking back to a sustainable level (I gave up trying to read 100 blogs a day, of which 30% of them were covering the same topic that the others were).

I think though that we may also be seeing a bit of rationalisation, as there are really only so many theorycrafting blogs for a game that requires less and less theory crafting every patch. It’s possible that those that have nothing else to give will fade away at the same time that other people are just making personal decisions about the use of their time.

Go your own way

Whatever is happening it is happening because individuals are making decisions about their own lives.

The important thing is to do the same yourself.

If you really are jack of WoW, and don’t think under any circumstances you can resurrect that joy you once found, then congratulations, sounds like you just got your life back.. although you may pour it into something just as time consuming and derided by the community at large.

If you are really loving WoW, then find a room! Ohh yeah find a room and get your WoW groove on. Play like you have never played before.

If you are really loving WoW and bore your friends and family to tears talking about it all the time… then come blog, because you know what, we love your boring stories… they are exciting to us.

If you find a blogger that is under the radar, let them know how to become known… screw it, dob them in yourself to Twisted Nether or Blog Azeroth, give them one more reason to write one more post.

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30 Responses

Everyytime I think we Dwarves have finally seen the llast of you, you manage to sneak back in. *sigh* lol

You’re right though. Even if every Blog Azeroth/TwistedNether related blogger closed shop, WoW and other bloggers would keep sneaking in like a stinking Gnome. (Sorry that just cracked me up. Reminded me of the old days. lol)

Great post, and I must say I’m proud to be a vanilla veteran who is still getting new thrills out of this game.

I share your LoLs everytime someone says Rift is some kind of WoW-killer. It has probably caused more of a distraction from the WoW playerbase than other challengers, but that really doesn’t mean anything. It is currently the shiny new game, but there are still the same millions logging into WoW every week. That’s before you consider that many ‘trying’ Rift now are likely to come back when the next raid content comes out. Such is the way with WoW: sometimes you need a break, something there’s something shiny (and in Rift’s case, remarkably similar to WoW) to try out. But most people always come back.

This is all aside from the fact that I’m pretty sure WoW will be around in some form or another for at least 10-20 years after even the majority of the population abandons it. Just look at Everquest, its still got several servers running even now, 12 years after it started, and the WoW population completely eclipses that of EQ in its heyday.

There have been many wow killers, but as many serious game bloggers (Tobold et al) have said before, WoW has spoiled the player base, so unless it’s a WoW clone it wont have much success.

From what I understand, Rift is a reasonable WoW clone, close enough to be warm, familiar and comfortable, different enough to be one better than an expansion.

Now Rift may be going in 20 years as well, I might even be playing it in preference to WoW at some point, but that doesn’t mean the sky is falling… in fact, if we consider the “defecting” bloggers as game bloggers rather than WoW bloggers, the community just got stronger and more interesting.

Old mages never die, they iceblock, blink and then fire a large, irridescent pyroblast up your tailpipe when you’ve turned away.

The analogy I keep returning to when I think of WoW is that of a relationship. At first, everything is fresh, new and exciting, yet a little overwhelming, so you proceed slowly – tentative to take a risk – “Do you mind if I hold your hand?”
After a reasonable amount of time getting to know one another, you progress into the period of hot, passionate, “Oh my god, I can’t get enough of you!” taking on everything at once. Awhile later, kids enter the equation and you just can’t seem to find the time to spend alone with your soulmate – “Yes, dear, I still love you, but the alts really need my attention.” After a while, the alts grow up and start their own life and you’re not really sure what to do with your true love after all those years – “Geez, honey, where do we go from here? I now need Valor Points?” Finally, after all is said and done, a slow realization comes over you that, “You know what, dear, through the years you have provided me magical moments of love and escape and I’m happy that I chose you to spend my time with,” much like you feel about a long time partner. The shine may dull a little and the passion may not seem to be quite as hot as it once was, but we all know it’s the dull-looking wood and embers at the bottom that keep the fire going.

That is a great analogy and as any relationship counselor will suggest, mixing up the relationship, trying something new, or even taking pains (ala BBB) to experience the initial lust can change and save a long term relationship.

7 year itch (which I heard the other day has become a 6 year itch in our fast moving world)… sounds familiar, yet many RL relationships survive this and become much stronger relationships based on respect rather than lust.

Sorry for the sore bum…but I’m glad you’re not leaving us. As for WoW, I’m just taking a break as well. I’ve done that before…but it always brings me back…I’m already feeling the urge of the mage to go back.

Damn, now I know what I intended to put in this post, but forgot due to my joy about dunny paper…

You are a perfect example of a WoW blogger that isn’t… you are a game blogger that writes about WoW often enough that WoW fans get a hit and your other posts hold enough interest to make it worthwhile for all

Doom and Gloom is my department.. how dare others muscle into my domain…

I think it may be the beginning of that Zombie invasion that everyone is making plans for (rather than natural disaster plans)… Meh, you have to weigh the odds… I think the Zombie invasion is now more likely that ever.

great post, as usual, but… did ya HAVE to harsh on elizabeth taylor? i mean, she did a LOT for visibility for the AIDS crisis in the 80s. she was gutsy and stood up and brought attention to the horrors of it at a time when very few others would. for that alone she garnered my respect. that, and she was freakin’ gorgeous when she was young.

Holly crap you actually went to see my “attempt at blogging” I so warmly call to my Blog, and even posted .
I am Honored. :)
OK, i think i exaggerated a bit.
I guess I probably even might have given you some inspiration to this topic ,I am one of the new breed of WoW blogger out there trying to do something to share by love for the game, but eck this is my very first try in blogging so it goes how its is suppose to go ;confusing ,messy ,and all other word that come to my mind.
But is my view of things, good, bad ,it is what I at the moment are able to do.
I am one Wrath Newborns you speak off , so my time here in this game is about 1 and half here, give or take month.
But after a one hell of fun time about 6 or 7 months ago, all that fun and joy, went to the Shitter (pardon my french), and I left for a couple of months.
But something weird happened , of all the games i played after playing WOW, not even one and i played many ,some many i can even remember half of them , gave me the pleasure (no sexual joke here sorry) ,that wow gave me ,so I come back in January 2011 for another go.
This time I even tried to make gold ( 35K in 3 months not bad ) , but now my pleasure in playing is fading a bit, thats one of the reasons I post that comment you saw.
But hell this happens all the time ,I still have so much to do in the game, still only have 1 level 85 Toon, Still have to level up my gnome priest, and gnome Warlock (hihihihihi /sarcarm ends) that I even don´t know If I will ever stop playing it ,but that´s the way It is .
We all have our opinion about it , right or wrong its our opinion, so in the end thats all what matter,to have fun, write about it ,don´t write about it.
Love to play it or love to hate it, this game will forever leave a mark on me.
And i am pretty sure i already did that to you, and so many others out there.
Long post ended.

Hey gnome,
Im a vanilla vet, I remember Rag 40mans sans vent. Guild leader had macros and one said ” SIT DOWN AND STOP TYPING INSTRUCTIONS IMMENENT ” then BAM, Macro scroll. Getting my tier helm from ony when our guild downed her for the first time… before the “dressing room ” before the LFG channel, when you had to fly to one FP chose the next then fly again. No auto course for you! epic mounts where 1000g atainable only at level 60, little ones 100g at level 40. And those that had them where revered! Scholo was a 10man and Ubers was a place to be feared… Thats the wow I love. Thats the wow I miss.

I dont know if ill ever be able to find that old spark again. Looks like my wife has, But she started at the end of BC so i got a few years on her yet. But the only time I want to play, is when I see her playing. And even then its only half the time. I think I dont really want wow, I want to have that much fun in a game again… Thanx for listenin Gnome.

Those bloody flight paths… A friend (Wrath Newborn) asked me the other day if with the addition of all the new Crusade flight points, whether the paths seemed inefficient.. I laughed. I remember when you had to hand pick each stage, then the “bird” would fly off in the wrong direction then slowly head to the right destination…

Like many I couldn’t afford my 1st mount until later, even then it was purchased with a loan… my 1st epic mount came with BC because I couldn’t afford it…

In fact, at that point I was on to my 3rd character (Gnome) and he was the 1st to reach 60, because it was so hard to get a group and all my friends were always 5 levels ahead of me… or raiding… so it was solo grind to 60.

I believe the difference between your wife still finding enjoyment and you only getting minor and occasional enjoyment is understandable, ultimately we all want something slightly different from our lives anyway, throw in some years, expansions and prior experiences and WoW (as well as anything else) is going to mean different things.

To be honest there are nights where I log on and don’t have fun, there are some nights I preempt this by not logging on at all. Still, just as I get to the point that I think it’s time to say goodbye forever, something will catch my attention, or I will toss away the activity which is draining my enjoyment.

I’m realistic, I know that like Kirzzlybear, one day I may be professing my undying love for the game and blogging, and the next I will have had enough… but the game will go on without me (quite rude I think, but if the world really doesn’t revolve around me (still yet to see the proof), then I guess that’s OK).

Every generation of bloggers give birth to the next. Eventually in time some in each generation set that came before moves on over time. I myself was finally happy to move on from blogging about WoW myself to other games. It was just time to move on.

I also do believe when and if WoW dies it will absolutely be a very slow death with lots of people throwing HoT to keep it alive.

Yep raging is still probably the best indicator for love of a game, even in ex-players.

If you rage that much, you have to care.

As for the Mother-in-Law, I get on with her better (over sustained periods) than my ex. In fact I have been in contact with her post separation, unlike my ex. The only hindrance will be how much time she lives with me over the next 4 months, which might be 50%… or more if they fight within 10 minutes of touchdown (normal result)

It always makes me feel so good knowing you are still out there, plugging away.

Wonderful people like you keep me playing and keep me amused, which is a hard thing to do anymore. I just wanted to say thanks man, and keep those wonderful, and even more important, just plain silly posts coming man. Blogs are a wonderful way to get stuff out there, and let other folks in.

Hopefully at some point I will write something other than boring meta-posts. You know that it’s a boring topic when you have to insert kindergarten jokes in it to keep you amused (while writing it, not just reading it)